News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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A commercial property on SR-155, near Western Avenue, was cleared by the city last week because of a nuisance problem. Jeff’s Towing of Coulee City took a pickup truck, a large truck with a boom on it, a boat and a storage shed off the property at 20 Coulee Boulevard East. City workers acted on a court order in support of the city’s nuisance ordinance and an officer from the Grand Coulee Police Department was requested to stand by. After the large items were removed from the...
A local group of stakeholders will get the first look at the text for the all new laser light show within the next couple of weeks. Participants include the Colville Confederated Tribes, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Coulee Area Chamber of Commerce, the National Park Service, a representative from each town and someone from the irrigation district, as well as others. The inaugural showing of the new laser light show is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, but Bureau of Reclamation officials said it might not make that date....
Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow, Greg Wilder and Elmer City Councilmember Larry Holford all met with the Colville Tribes Community Development Committee Tuesday to discuss the proposed wastewater treatment facility. The meeting, originally set for 9:30 a.m. was rescheduled at Snow’s request for 9 a.m. He told the group that the town had decided to delay proceeding with the facility plan, taking 90 days to get a fresh look at it, and he encouraged the Colville Tribes to participate. Holford and Wilder, who were expecting the meet...
The new K-12 school complex is being advertised for bids this month. Design and school officials went over the project, estimated to cost $24 million, with townspeople last Wednesday night at a meeting in the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School library. Plans will be ready for review by prospective bidders on Jan. 29, and a pre-bid meeting for general contractors has been set for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the construction site. Bids will be opened, Superintendent Dennis Carlson...
Greg Wilder, 69, a Coulee Dam activist, said last week that he plans to file for the office of mayor as an “agent of change” when the filing period opens in May. Wilder has been at odds with two-term Mayor Quincy Snow, and the town administration as a whole, for the past two years, largely over the proposed wastewater treatment plant. Wilder says he has determined that the present $4.92 million plant now being designed is being overbuilt and that it will cost the citizens of Coulee Dam too high of sewer bills for the nex...
Development of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant upgrade is on hold for three months. The council made the decision at a hastily called meeting Monday afternoon on Martin Luther King Day. Even though the meeting date wasn’t announced until late Friday, the council chamber was packed and fireworks started immediately as community activist Greg Wilder and Mayor Quincy Snow tangled over the timing of the meeting. The council, which normally meets the second and fourth Wed...
The state of Washington ranks second in the nation in National Board Certified teachers a report for 2012 stated last week. Washington remains a national leader in both the number of new National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) and the total number teaching in the state’s schools. The Grand Coulee Dam School District currently has four NBCTs, two in Center Elementary and two in Lake Roosevelt High School. District NBCTs are paid a stipend by the district which reflects the difficult two-year process to get the c...
You might get a “cackle” out of this. The chickens could come home to roost in Electric City sometime this spring. The city council will likely take the issue up Feb. 12, after a favorable recommendation from the planning commission. While the greater issue of “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” won’t be part of the city’s determination, how many chickens you can have will. If the council passes the chicken ordinance, residents who live on at least 6,000-square-foot lots will be allowed six chickens, all hens. There...
A local man wanted here for a November armed robbery of the Smoke Shop in Coulee Dam was arrested over the weekend by police in Spokane, where he was allegedly involved in what is thought was a gang-related double shooting, the Spokesman Review newspaper reported. Spokane police arrested Phillip Cody Ruiz, 23, early Saturday, and, later that day, another man, Daniel J. Dublin, 33, on two counts of first-degree assault after two people were sent to a Spokane hospital with gunshot wounds. Both were reported in critical...
School patrons will have an opportunity to see the final K-12 school plans tonight (Wednesday). The meeting for the plan review will follow a 6 p.m. school board meeting in the library at the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School. School officials said the school plan meeting will take place shortly after the school board meeting. Patrons will get a chance to see some final adjustments to the new school plan, plus a rundown on color schemes and different materials to be used in the...
Police arrested a 50-year-old transient after responding to a fire at a small house at 329 Tyne Avenue in Grand Coulee Monday night. The house had already been partially gutted by fire two years ago, and had been boarded up. Police officers Gary Moore and Joe Higgs arrived at the fire site at the same time as firefighters and discovered that there was someone in the house. Trang Hoa Minh exited the house and refused to tell officers if there was anyone else inside. Officers...
A petition asking Coulee Dam’s town council to reconsider it current course to upgrade the town’s wastewater treatment plant is being presented door to door by a half dozen people. Greg Wilder, a resident who has been skeptical of the proposed design and critical of the town’s process in the matter, said the group hopes to present signatures from 90 percent of the town’s households to the council at its Jan. 23 meeting. Monday afternoon, he said, some 200 signatures were in hand. The petition drive was started by Kathy a...
Dan Foster has been named superintendent of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, it was announced last week. Foster is currently superintendent at Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska, a 76-mile-long free flowing river recreation area. Chris Lehnertz, Pacific West Regional NPS director, made the announcement and said Foster will take over his new duties here in February. Foster said last Thursday that he knows the area w...
Elmer City Mayor Mary Jo Carey said her town would rather be part of Coulee Dam’s wastewater treatment plant project than develop its own plant. In an interview, she said Elmer City’s council voted to move forward investigating its own plant as a safety valve in case the town can’t work out its problems with Coulee Dam. “It’s all about money and how we have been treated,” Carey stated. “Our citizens can’t afford the high monthly wastewater treatment costs as outlined by Coulee Dam.” “What we’d like to see is for Coulee Dam...
Elmer City’s town council is divided about what to do in regard to Coulee Dam’s proposed wastewater treatment project. Both Mayor Mary Jo Carey and Councilmember Larry Holford indicate interest in proceeding along parallel lines, trying to move forward with Coulee Dam while progressing on a plan to build their own sewer treatment plant. Newcomer to the council Gail Morin, who was sworn in last Thursday night, was adamant about Elmer City going its own way. Shortly after bei...
School patrons can get a final look at the plans for the new K-12 school complex on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the Grand Coulee Dam Middle School library. Architect Cameron Golightly will present final plans, answer questions, and review the color schemes of the new buildings. The plans recently went through a constructability review with some minor changes occurring, largely in the wording for the bid documents. The school board meeting will begin at 6 p.m., with the public presentation shortly after 7 p.m. The public is...
The Star newspaper followed one rancher’s plight after the big fire destroyed much of his pastureland last year. Jim and Michelle Hemmer have managed to find enough hay for winter feed for their 400 head of livestock. Jim said last week that they have trimmed their herd of 500 cattle down to less than 400 and spent countless hours finding winter hay and repairing fence, all because of the fire, Hemmer would be the first to tell you that many ranchers up in the Delrio flats suffered as much loss as he did, if not more. But i...
Despite national some regional reports of a run on gun buying following fears of increased regulations, the gun rush doesn’t seem to have surfaced locally. The two local police departments haven’t noticed any spikes in applications for concealed pistol licenses, spokesmen noted this week. Coulee Dam Police Chief Pat Collins said his department has about 20 CPL’s on the books, all renewals. “We haven’t seen any rush by people here to get concealed pistol permits,” Collins noted. Likewise in Grand Coulee, Police Chief Mel H...
The Port District is opening Banks Lake Golf Course March 1. The opening of the course this year has been in question since money is running out at Port District 7, which also runs the Grand Coulee Dam Airport. The first indication that a decision has been made to open the course came in the form of an advertisement placed in The Star newspaper this week. Last season the port district opened the golf course after the operator pulled out just weeks before golf play, and after a community meeting of golfers where district commi...
The seniors now have a bus. Bob Rupe, Electric City’s representative on the Grant Transit Authority Board had the surplus bus delivered to the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center on Friday. “It’s a 14-passenger bus, small enough so anyone can drive it,” Rupe stated. Rupe has served on the GTA board previously and stated Friday that when he recently returned to the board “it was like going home.” The “People to People” bus was used by a contract carrier to help fill bus routes for...
A story about Coulee Dam resident Carol Netzel feeding deer at her home got an unusual and welcome response from a man in Pateros. His letter to Netzel included an $80 check to help her with her feeding chores, and this note: “I read the article in the paper about you taking care of some deer and quail. “I don’t have any deer that come into my yard, but I’m feeding about 50-60 quail a day and some chickadees. “The best value I found for quail is at Big R (Omak) it’s for...
An electrical malfunction was named initially as the cause of a fire that destroyed the Nez Perce longhouse south of Nespelem the day after Christmas. Firefighters responded to a 12:30 a.m. call Dec. 26 and found the structure engulfed in flames. Firefighters arrived minutes after receiving the alarm and the fire was so hot that they couldn’t get close to the structure. Soy Redthunder, who has been active in the longhouse, said the structure was 70 feet by 80 feet and i...
Cell one at the old Delano Landfill is officially closed. All four towns that participated in the landfill, Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam and Elmer City, have approved final closure of the seven-acre garbage landfill. Final closure, placing cover material over the landfill was completed a year ago, with minor additional work this year by Halme Construction of Davenport. Then the issue went to the four municipalities that jointly own the landfill project for approval. While covering the landfill is complete, the...
Grand Coulee’s council made it a “happy new year” for Police Chief Mel Hunt last Wednesday, when in a special meeting it voted to buy up 787 hours of his compensatory time for $42,922.50, according to city officials. In a document signed by Hunt and Mayor Chris Christopherson, Sept. 2, 2011, the city had agreed to 787 hours of compensatory time dating from March 25, 1976, the beginning of Hunt’s employment, to Aug. 1, 2011. Compensatory time is figured at time and one-half the regular hourly rate. Since Aug. 1, 2011, the chi...
The bad news came in waves last Thursday for port district commissioners. First, their hope that they could secure grant funding to put in an RV park at Banks Lake Golf Course to help it pay its bills faltered. Second, airport Manager Bob Babler put commissioners on the spot about an outdated and poorly performing snow plow. And to top the evening off, longtime Secretary/Treasurer Kary Byam resigned. The port district is trying to find a way to keep the 18-hole Banks Lake Golf Course open again this year. But it will have to...
